Anti-Muslim & anti-Hispanic hate crimes rise on Long Island

Reported incidents of both anti-Muslim* and anti-Hispanic hate crimes on Long Island increased between 2014 and 2015, according to data found at data.ny.gov.

There were a total of 770 reported incidents of hate crimes committed against people and property on Long Island between 2010 and 2015. The number of hate crimes across the island spiked in 2012 with 184, a 55 percent increase from the 101 hate crimes in 2011. Since 2012, incidents have been declining, with only 104 reported in 2015.

Even though hate crimes are decreasing overall, anti-Muslim hate crime reports increased by 600 percent, from only one committed in 2014 to seven committed in 2015. Reports of anti-Hispanic hate crimes increased by 150 percent, from two in 2014 to five in 2015.

Of the total, 19 hate crimes were committed with anti-Muslim bias, while 46 hate crimes were committed with an anti-Hispanic bias.

Suffolk County had more than twice the number of reported hate crimes occur than Nassau County in 2014, 91 and 42, respectively, and the same disparity was seen in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015, Suffolk County had 59 percent of Long Island’s hate crimes, while Nassau County only had 41 percent.

New York State follows the FBI’s methodology for tracking hate crimes, which separates hate crimes into 38 distinct categories of bias type.

Hate crimes with an anti-Jewish bias are the most prevalent type on Long Island. Of the 770 total hate crimes, 372 were committed with an anti-Jewish bias. Every year between 2010 and 2015, this bias type makes up the highest percent of hate crimes. While the overall number of hate crime across the island is decreasing, the percent of anti-Jewish hate crimes in regards to the total is on the rise.

For all reported hate crime incidents on Long Island, anti-Jewish incidents are the highest at 48 percent, followed by anti-black at 20 percent, anti-gay* at 7 percent and anti-Hispanic at 6 percent. Anti-Muslim hate crimes make up only 2 percent of the total.

The remaining 26 percent of hate crimes is made up of a combination of 33 other distinct types of bias.

All charts made by Marie Haaland
*In the original data set, these are listed as anti-Islamic (Muslim) and anti-male homosexual.